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How to feel beautiful — without make-up

Stop comparing

She has a better body than me, she looks better in that dress, she has a better career than me – enough!

Stop comparing yourself to others. Find the things you love about yourself and put your energy into that.

You will soon stop comparing yourself to other people and start enjoying your life!

Smile

There is nothing more attractive than a big, bright happy smile! So don’t be afraid to show those pearly whites!

Visit beautiful places

When you visit beautiful places you can feel beautiful just by being there.

Pick a place where this rings true for you and visit it often.

Breath

Stop, slow down and breath.

Calm breathing makes you feel relaxed and at ease and this translates to your face and body making you look and feel calm.

Ditch the black and brighten up your wardrobe

Is black your “safe colour”? Well, it’s time to ditch the black and opt for some colour! You will be surprised how good you will feel in a bright yellow or pink number.

It all comes down to choosing the right colours for you. Follow our guide to Choosing the colours that suit you best.

Do exercise that you love doing

When you exercise, your brain releases endorphins which are chemicals that improve your mood and act as natural painkillers.

The key to enjoying exercise is to find a sport or activity that you really love doing.

You will feel happy doing it, and that happiness will translate to everything you do.

Be friends only with those who make you smile

The people we include in our lives make a big difference on how we feel about ourselves.

Recent studies showed that the social networks we choose have a profound effect on our behaviours and attitudes— including how we perceive our appearance.

So start spending time with people who feel good about themselves and make you feel good too!

Stand strong and tall

Practice standing tall and sitting up straight you will feel on top of the world and people will take notice of you and your confident stance.

Be happy in your own skin

Love who you are and stop focusing on the negative.

It is time to start believing that you can do things and that you do look good!

The power of positive thinking will boost your confidence and make you both look and feel beautiful!

Take compliments

When someone gives you a compliment, take it!

Say thank you graciously and feel good about it.

If we refuse to accept a genuine compliment from someone where does that leave us?

Sleep

We often feel like we don’t have time to get a good night’s sleep, well it’s time to start taking the time.

Getting plenty of rest will not only makes you feel better on the inside, you will look more attractive on the outside too!

Hydrate your skin

Take good care of your skin by washing your face daily.

Having well-looked after skin will make you feel fresh faced and give your skin a natural glow.

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Home Page 4933

How to be a Man

How to be a Man

How to be a Man , by Glenn O’Brien, Hardie Grant, $29.95

A handsome volume to encourage gentlemanly behaviour — the ideal gift for the modern man seeking advice on hair (“nothing perfectly symmetrical”), clothes (“real men wear good socks”) and how to deliver a stinging insult (“be precise and specific; anyone can launch a barrage”).

Most of the advice is sound and pungent, laced with O’Brien’s lengthy elaborations on aspects of manhood, and his own experiences thereof; his observations flirt with wisdom and are blessedly free of the jargon of self-help.

In short, a most improving and entertaining work — and who could disagree with the nomination of George Clooney as the model dandy?

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The Flight Attendant’s Shoe

The Flight Attendant's Shoe

The Flight Attendant’s Shoe by Prudence Black, New South, $49.95

On a chilly international flight the other day, I asked the harried attendant for a blanket. “No blankets on this plane”, she said, before scuttling off with my $3 for a bottle of water.

Ah, the glamour. If it’s tough on passengers, think what it must be like for the women we once affectionately called “hosties”.

Groomed to perfection in their trim uniforms and iconic court shoes, the early hostesses had a job many young girls dreamed of — overlooking the fact they’d be out of it the minute they married.

This lively, picture-packed account of the evolution of the Australian flight attendant — her hair, her clothes, the weird rules of etiquette — will evoke squeaks of recognition and a big nostalgic thank you from someone who remembers the way it was, before cheap fares and mass travel.

Just don’t give it to someone who grew up with cattle class, it’ll only make them depressed.

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Home Page 4933

How I Became A Famous Novelist

How I Became A Famous Novelist

How I Became A Famous Novelist, By Steve Hely, Black Inc, $19.95

Pete Tarslaw is a washed-up but well-read loser who works out that the easiest way to make a fortune (plus impress his old girlfriend) is to write a best-selling novel.

He analyses what works, draws up a list of rules (note to self: must have a kindly gentleman dancing in a cornfield) and starts writing The Tornado Ashes Club, a brilliant pastiche of the folksy, fake-literary style which racks up middle American readers.

Only a seriously good writer could choose to write this badly and Hely has honed his wit behind the scenes at 30 Rock and The David Letterman Show; the result is the perfect small gift for anyone who likes to read and laugh wickedly at the same time.

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George Harrison: Living in the Material World

George Harrison:  Living in the Material World

George Harrison: Living in the Material World by Olivia Harrison published by Abrams $49.95

He was the quiet Beatle. The spiritual Beatle. Not as charismatic as the pretty ones, John and Paul, and on stage he would sometimes stare out at the screaming girls and look as though he would rather be elsewhere.

George Harrison’s music has endured though, and his songs have a unique sweetness.

This portrait in photographs, letters and diaries, by George’s wife Olivia, is released to coincide with Martin Scorsese’s documentary; he describes in his foreword how the man who possessed the world at 21 came down on the other side of acclaim and went on to cultivate “harmony, balance, serenity”.

Hard to imagine how hard it must have been, but this glossy book gives a whiff of it — the hard-scrabble childhood in Liverpool, the early days at the Cavern, the craziness, and then the life-long search , in India and elsewhere, for a place of peace.

The story is old but most of the material here is new, including handwritten lyrics to the haunting All Things Must Pass. Give it to your boomer friend or loved one, and watch their eyes grow misty.

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Women’s Stuff

Women's Stuff

Women’s Stuff by Kaz Cooke, Viking; $59.95

Not so much a book as a 770-page compendium of womanhood, jam-packed with sensible advice on everything from food to moods to workplace bullies to money management (including a caution against sugar daddies).

There’s almost no condition, disorder or problem it doesn’t address, which gets a bit overwhelming at times but the thoughtful Ms Cooke also provides names and numbers where help can be found.

Buy it for the house and hope your teenage daughter falls over it and learns some sense. Or your mum.

This is a book which promises all things to women of all ages, and delivers.

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Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John Le Carre, Sceptre (Hachette), $19.99

One of the world’s most iconic spy thrillers has stood the test of time. First published in 1974, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is back on shelves to coincide with the release of the film adaptation.

George Smiley is a sadder man than his name suggests. Small, podgy, and middle-aged, he’s been kicked out of the British Secret Service and abandoned by his beautiful wife.

He’s the antithesis of James Bond, but does he have what it takes to discover the Soviet mole at the top of British Intelligence?

Le Carre’s classic is well worth a second read for the grim nostalgic glamour of 1970’s London and its complicated Cold War battles.

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Sarah Thornhill

Sarah Thornhill

Sarah Thornhill by Kate Grenville, Text Publishing, $39.95

The daughter of convicts, Sarah Thornhill has grown up a comparatively wealthy young woman on the banks of the Hawkesbury River in the Colony of New South Wales.

But a mysterious missing brother, the strange behaviour of her father, and a thwarted love affair will lead her to discover the awful secret at the foundation of her family’s comfortable life.

Sarah Thornhill is a beautifully told story of early Australia, and the triumphs and struggles of its convicts, free settlers, and aborigines.

It’s the sequel to The Secret River so if you really love someone why not buy them both?

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Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? By Jeanette Winterson, Random House. $29.99

At six weeks old, the baby who would become the successful novelist Jeanette Winterson was given up for adoption.

And so started a life story that would inspire the bestselling book and television series Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit.

Her adopted mother Mrs Winterson was a flamboyant depressive who waited daily for the apocalypse, even embroidering her daughter’s school gym bag with the message, “The summer is ended and we are not yet saved”.

It was a loveless and difficult childhood, and in this autobiography Winterson examines her search for happiness, belonging, and her biological mother, with humour and depth.

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Lady Almina and the Story of the Real Downton Abbey

Lady Almina and the Story of the Real Downton Abbey

Lady Almina and the Story of the Real Downton Abbey by Lady Fiona Carnarvon, Hodder & Stoughton, $32.99

The perfect gift for lovers of the television series Downton Abbey, a show filmed at magnificent Highclere Castle, home of Lady Almina, Countess of Carnarvon, from 1895 until 1923.

The much loved but illegitimate daughter of a Jewish billionaire financier, Almina was vastly wealthy but her questionable birth made her unacceptable in certain circles.

Daddy fixed that with a marriage to the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, a financially strapped aristocratic adventurer.

Almina’s transformation from debutante to society lady and eventually war nurse is fascinating, as is her husband’s triumphant discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb.

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